Episode 254 Dr. Noah St John Breaking Bad Habits Transcript

This transcript is from episode 254 with guest Dr. Noah St John.

[00:00:00] Scott DeLuzio: Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show.

[00:00:21] Scott DeLuzio: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Drive On Podcast. Today my guest is Dr. Noah St. John. Dr. Noah is known as the father of Afformations, and he’s here to help help us break out of bad habits and learn how to create new habits that are better for us. So welcome to the show. I’m glad to have.

[00:00:44] Dr. Noah St John: Well, thank you Scott.

[00:00:45] Dr. Noah St John: It’s great

[00:00:45] Scott DeLuzio: to be here. Yeah, absolutely. So, for the listeners who may not be familiar with you and your background, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?

[00:00:52] Dr. Noah St John: Well, yes, thank you. Yeah, I’m known as the father of Afformations. And by the way, we’re saying a new word for those of you who aren’t familiar with my work.

[00:00:59] Dr. Noah St John: It’s I’m only [00:01:00] at my book, one of my books called The Book of Afformations, and you can go to Afformations.com, learn more. It’s A F O R M A T I O S and we’ll talk more about that, I’m sure. So it’s different from the old style of affirmation or the old. That’s something I invented 25 years ago called the Afformations Method.

[00:01:16] Dr. Noah St John: And so yeah I’m known as the father of Afformations, the also known as the mental health coach to the stars. And you know, I’m also known for helping people make more money in just 12 weeks than they made in the previous 12 months while winning their lives back. Meaning they I help people to not only make more money, but also, and frankly, I feel more importantly is get their lives back.

[00:01:38] Dr. Noah St John: Meaning winning back one to three hours in your day and four to eight weeks in your year. And the reason that I say that, and the reason I think it’s very important is because, you know, there’s a lot of people out there teaching how to make more money, right? . And you know, imagine if I were to say, Hey, you know, here’s how to make more money.

[00:01:53] Dr. Noah St John: All you have to do is work twice as hard, work 10 times longer. Never take breaks. Don’t see your family, don’t take [00:02:00] vacations and just hustle and grind all the time. Sound good? And you’re like, no, that kind of sucks. No , right? So I’m literally the opposite of those hustle and grinders, you know, and there’s a ton of them out there.

[00:02:11] Dr. Noah St John: That just say, you know, work 14, 18, 20 hours a day and you know, sometimes yeah, we have to do that. You know, there’s time in, in life. Maybe if we’re, if you’re just, let’s say starting up a business or scaling up a business, you have to do a lot of work. You have to put a lot of hours in. But that shouldn’t be forever.

[00:02:29] Dr. Noah St John: you know, really. And part of the reason for that is because people aren’t taught how to put these correct habits and systems in place both in their lives and their business. You know, I’m very passionate about helping veterans, and I know that’s what this show’s all about, is helping veterans.

[00:02:44] Dr. Noah St John: I’m very passionate about helping veterans because I’m very aware that veterans very oftentimes have trouble after they have come back, you know, from active duty or what have you, and sometimes they lose their identity. And that happens very [00:03:00] often. As I’m sure people listening to the program know the statistics say that every day, 22 you know, military people, veterans you know, take their own lives through suicide and.

[00:03:09] Dr. Noah St John: You know, I myself faced suicide when I was 25 years old. At the age of 25, I decided to commit suicide because I was so depressed and frustrated with my own life and didn’t see a way out at the time. And, you know, at the very last minute, the mo last moment, my life was spared. And so I’ve dedicated the last 25 years to really helping people.

[00:03:30] Dr. Noah St John: You know, not only people who are at that level of depression and suicide, you know, suicide or suicidal thoughts or, you know, behaviors, but really anybody who wants to have more impact in the world. You know, a greater impact, more influence and more income. You know, so that’s really what I do.

[00:03:49] Scott DeLuzio: Well, that’s awesome because, you know, I’ve seen these people that you’re talking about who are, you know, oh, all you have to do is Right. Work twice as much Right. And see your family half [00:04:00] as much and Right. Do all the fun stuff in life less, and then you’ll be a millionaire by, you know, whatever, you know?

[00:04:07] Scott DeLuzio: Okay. Excellent. That’s all. Sounds great as far as like how that works. It sucks because now I, I don’t get to do any of the fun stuff in life, right? And I don’t get to enjoy life. What’s the point? That’s, you know, if i’s, you know, I’d rather have a lower income and enjoy life than basically sleep at work and never see my family and never do anything fun and.

[00:04:33] Scott DeLuzio: Have all the money in the world because like, what good is that money if I can’t, what’s the point exactly with it? Right? Right. So, you know, but this is more than just money and you got to that too because, ideally we’d like to help people before they get to that point where you and so many other people were at, where they were ready.

[00:04:48] Scott DeLuzio: to just end everything and just call it quits because you know, when you’re so frustrated with life, you don’t see a way out of whatever the situation is that you’re in and you’re [00:05:00] just going down this deep, dark hole. , sometimes there seems like there’s no way out. So if we can prevent people from even getting to that hole, or getting in that hole or anything like that, then you know, maybe we have a situation where we can help those people and.

[00:05:15] Scott DeLuzio: They don’t even see the hole, and they don’t even get to that point, you know? So, so let’s talk a little bit about, so you mentioned earlier the Afformations being a, kind of a newer word not the the way that we usually talk about affirmations, but Afformations . So why don’t you talk about that word and what it means and how that applies here in this convers.

[00:05:34] Dr. Noah St John: Absolutely. So again, I’ll just I’ll just show you. This is one of my books called The Book of F four Nations. You go to a f o r m a t i n s F four Nations just like it sound with an o f formations.com. Learn more about it so everybody knows what an F affirmation is, right? We’ve been taught this for over a century, right?

[00:05:51] Dr. Noah St John: All the goos say the same thing. If you read any self-help book, other than. Any other self-help book, you know, they talk about using these positive statements or affirmations. [00:06:00] So, you know, as a business coach, an executive coach, and a habits coach, one of the things I also get to do is work as a keynote speaker.

[00:06:07] Dr. Noah St John: You know, so I get to do keynote speeches all around the world, and one of the things that I like to do at my events, whether it’s a live seminar or a virtual event, I like to have my audience members stand up and I say, okay, everybody say an affirmation, just like we’ve been taught by the goose. And everybody say, I am rich.

[00:06:22] Dr. Noah St John: And everybody goes, I am rich. And you know what happens next? Everyone starts laughing, . And I go, what are you laughing at? And they say, well, I’m not rich. And I say, but you just said you were. And they go, yeah, but I don’t believe it. Aha. See now isn’t that the trouble, isn’t that the problem with that old method?

[00:06:39] Dr. Noah St John: Right? We say these positive statements and we wanna believe ’em, but in most cases we just don’t believe it. In fact, as you know, there was a scientific study done on this very topic, and they found that 75 get this, 75% of people actually end up more frustrated than before when they use the old affirmations method.

[00:06:56] Dr. Noah St John: So, I mean, imagine if you had a smartphone. Only [00:07:00] worked 25% of the time and didn’t work 75% of the time. You probably trade that phone in. Right. You’d probably traded it in for something that works better. Right. Well, that’s what I invented. I invented a new type of phone. You know, that works well actually a hundred percent of the time.

[00:07:12] Dr. Noah St John: And so that’s what you know, I call the Afformations method. So what’s the difference? So the Afformation, the old method is you say these positive statements, I’m happy, I’m rich, it’s unsuccessful, and your brain goes, no, you’re not . We just don’t believe it. And. 25 years ago is actually April, 1997. So over 25 years ago now, I was actually in the shower.

[00:07:32] Dr. Noah St John: I was thinking about this very topic, cuz I’ve been reading all these books and they all say the same thing. And I did everything they said and I had post-it notes, I’m happy, I’m rich, I’m successful. No I’m not. I’m broke. I’m unhappy and miserable. Right? That was the reality. So I said, What the heck, what aren’t they telling us?

[00:07:45] Dr. Noah St John: What are they leaving out? Right? It was so frustrating, and so I actually had this epiphany in the shower, , I call it the shower. That changed everything and when I realized that the human mind actually responds automatically to something much more powerful than statements, and yet at the [00:08:00] same time, simpler and easier.

[00:08:01] Dr. Noah St John: And more effective. And what is that? What’s the power of empowering questions? Right? And psychologists actually call us the embedded presupposition factor of the brain. Now, that’s just a fancy way of saying when you ask a question, your brain searches for the answer. So I said, why are we going around making statements that we don’t believe when the human mind responds?

[00:08:20] Dr. Noah St John: Automatically to something even more powerful, and it’s already right there inside of us. And I said, okay, so what would that look like? So we’ve got this statement, I am Rich, which your brain goes . Yeah, right, right. And so I said, if that’s the statement, what would the question be? And then I said, why am I so rich?

[00:08:38] Dr. Noah St John: Why am I so rich? Now, when you ask that question, it sounds kind of funny at first, but then if you really ask a question, why am I so rich? What starts to happen in your brain? You actually start to search for the answer, right? Your brain automatically searches for the answer just like you’re doing a Google search, right?

[00:08:56] Dr. Noah St John: Or a computer. If you’re searching for a file on your computer, well, your brain’s like a [00:09:00] computer. Your brain’s like Google and it. Literally has an infinite search engine right here between your ears, every moment. And so you’re searching for the answer. And by virtue of the law of sowing and reaping, which means as you sow so shall you reap.

[00:09:14] Dr. Noah St John: But what are we sowing? We’re sowing seeds of thought. And yet what are most people doing? They’re sewing lousy thought seeds. Thought seeds, like, why am I so stupid? Why can’t I get a job? Why isn’t my business growing? Why can’t I get more clients or customers or patients? Or why am I so fat? Why can’t I lose weight?

[00:09:36] Dr. Noah St John: Why does nothing ever work out for me? Why is there more month left at the end of the money ? Right? And when you ask lousy questions, what do you. Well, lousy answers. You get lousy answers. Right? Exactly. You get lousy answers and that creates a lousy life. So I said, what if instead of asking lousy questions that lead to lousy answers and create a lousy life, what if we just flipped the whole thing on its head?

[00:09:56] Dr. Noah St John: Start asking, empowering questions that lead to phenomenal answers and [00:10:00] create a wonderful life. And that’s why in the shower, that changed everything. 25 years ago, I invented this method that we, that I called and I named it, you know, the F four Nations method. I actually trademarked that term. It’s a, it’s official trademark in the United States Government F four Nations.

[00:10:14] Dr. Noah St John: Again, it’s f a four major AF, F o r m a t i n s f four nations.com. You can learn more about it and I. Since that time, over 25 years ago, I’ve taught my Afformations method to over a million people around the world. And we’ve helped people not only through my Afformations method, but through my other, you know, formulas and methods as well to literally add six, seven, and even eight figures to their business and record time, work less and make more.

[00:10:41] Dr. Noah St John: We’ve also helped people lose, you know, weight, literally lose thousands of pounds collectively. Also find love. You know, we’ve helped people find their soulmate, save marriages. We help kids. The kids love Afformations. For those of you listening who you know have kids or nieces or nephews or whatever grandkids teach them about my Afformations method, [00:11:00] because kids absolutely, totally get it.

[00:11:02] Dr. Noah St John: They love it. And we have so many stories that people have sent to me about, you know, they, they shared my affirmations method. With their kids or grandkids or nieces, nephews, and, you know, the kids starts to get better grades, start to feel more confident. We’ve had kids who, you know, were on like a not so great road and then they ended up going to college and I mean, getting scholarships.

[00:11:20] Dr. Noah St John: So, I mean, just incredible stories like this from literally all around the world as a result of using my Afformations method.

[00:11:27] Scott DeLuzio: Well, that, I mean, that’s great. The. Flipping the questions around it, it almost as you’re describing it, remind me of the show Jeopardy, where, you know, you, you have to answer in the form of a question That’s right.

[00:11:37] Scott DeLuzio: As opposed to just giving the answer. Right. That’s right. Whatever the statement is. And so it, it seemed like that. And so, you know, I started thinking about the different thoughts that go through. Our heads every day and stuff that you mentioned. You know, why can’t I lose weight?

[00:11:52] Scott DeLuzio: Why can’t I do this? Why? , you know, these aren’t the, maybe the right questions to be asking ourselves, but, , you know, when you start changing some those [00:12:00] questions and making it into something that’s a little more productive. Then I started to see my brain.

[00:12:06] Scott DeLuzio: Thinking around and trying to figure out what the actual answer is, because I could say, you know, why am I not making more money? Or Why am I not losing weight or whatever? And I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t know, because things that I’ve tried don’t work. I guess that’s the answer.

[00:12:23] Scott DeLuzio: Like, those things don’t work. Okay. But there’s something out there that will work and , have to figure that out. So maybe I need to ask a better question. . . Get to the root of whatever it is that I’m trying to figure out. . But a lot of times people end up feeling stuck. , they get to that point where it’s like, okay, why can’t I lose weight?

[00:12:40] Scott DeLuzio: Why can’t I quit smoking, why can’t I, whatever, . And you’ve said that there’s this phenomenon or this thing that you call head trash. The reason why so many people end up feeling stuck in these situations, so, so what is this head trash that you’re talking about and how does it keep people stuck?

[00:12:57] Dr. Noah St John: For everybody listening, I want you to think about [00:13:00] your goals for a second, right? So what are your goals for the next 12 months of your life? Right? So, well, of course people say, you know, I wanna make more money. I wanna start a business. I wanna grow my business. I wanna get more clients or patients or, you know, whatever it is that you do, I wanna write a book.

[00:13:15] Dr. Noah St John: You know, maybe a lot of people say to me, no, I wanna write books like you do. I mean, I’ve published you know, 19 books at this point. My 20th is coming out soon. But anyway, so, you know, think about those goals, right? And then, but what happens for so many people is that the very next thought that they have is, well, you know, I want that thing, but I probably can’t do.

[00:13:33] Dr. Noah St John: you know? And then what happens is they say, I can’t do it because, right? And see whatever happens after the word, because is what you believe and what you will defend to the death. See, there’s an old saying that if you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them and see, the way that I say it is that we humans have an infinite capacity to make ourselves.

[00:13:56] Dr. Noah St John: And so the point is that if you believe that I can’t [00:14:00] do it because, you know, and then people say, well, I can’t do it because, oh, I don’t have the money, I don’t have the time. I can’t afford it. I don’t have the right connections. I don’t know the right people. I didn’t go to the right college. Or you know, I’m too old.

[00:14:12] Dr. Noah St John: I made too many mistakes. Or, you know, I’m divorced or you know, I have kids or. I’m a Martian, you know, whatever it might be, people can find any excuse, right? And then you always make yourself right. See? And so you think about those goals and then it’s like, yeah, but why bother? You know what, I think I’ll just go watch Netflix and that, you know, that’s just one example of how these poor habits, which I call unproductive habits.

[00:14:36] Dr. Noah St John: See, there’s really only two types of habits if you think about it, what I call product. And unproductive, right? So a lot of people out there have a lot of labels. You know, they say good habits and bad habits. I don’t agree with that because what happens is that you just get into these labels. It’s a good habit or it’s a bad habit, but that doesn’t really mean anything.

[00:14:55] Dr. Noah St John: If you think about it. What you really wanna start thinking about is this habit, is [00:15:00] this thing that I’m currently doing, bringing me towards my goals or not? In other words, is it bringing me towards my goals or is it actually bringing me further away from my goals? Or is it maybe just doing nothing and I’m just staying right where I am?

[00:15:16] Dr. Noah St John: Right. So if it’s bringing you further away from your goals or keeping you right where you’re art, I would classify that as an unproductive goal. Right? So an a classic example would be if my goal is to be healthy, and yet I have a habit of overeating and smoking. Is that gonna give you the thing that you want?

[00:15:37] Dr. Noah St John: Probably not, right? I mean, I mean, or even eating junk food, right? Eating junk food. We all know what that means. We all know what it means to eat right and not eat right. We all know that. Nobody needs any more training on that, right? And so the point is, well then why would we do that? Well, because the human what people don’t realize is what a habit actually.

[00:15:58] Dr. Noah St John: And this is why it relates to head trash, [00:16:00] because the head trash says, well, I’ll never lose weight. I’ve always been overweight, I’ve always been fat and I can’t do it. Same thing with money. You know what? I came from a poor family, you know, I was raised poor and I’ll probably never have any money. So I’ll, you know, that’s it.

[00:16:13] Dr. Noah St John: That’s the end for me. And I’ll just, you know, make due with what I got. And, you know, I understand that because I grew up poor in a rich. And so I had a very unique, interesting, you know, childhood because most people either grow up rich in a rich neighborhood or poor in a poor neighborhood. , well, I grew up poor in a rich neighborhood, so I got to see the vast chasm between the haves and the have-nots.

[00:16:34] Dr. Noah St John: The haves was everyone else in the community. The have-nots was my family, right? And we’ve probably all heard, you know, motivational speakers or whatever they or gurus get on stage and they say, well, you know, we were poor, but we were happy. We didn’t know we were poor. Well, my family, we freak and knew we were.

[00:16:48] Dr. Noah St John: Because my mother, bless her heart, reminded us every day that we were poor and miserable. So no, it wasn’t happy. It sucked. And so I hated that life of poverty. That’s what I grew up in. But I saw right down the street there’s great wealth and abundance. So for my whole life, [00:17:00] I’m like, how the heck do I get from here to there?

[00:17:01] Dr. Noah St John: And that’s what all of my work has been about. So, you know, it’s not like I grew up with a silver spoon in my mouth. I don’t think I even had a spoon. Maybe it was plastic. But anyway you know, that’s what I’m trying to say is that if. Want to have something better in your life, which right, we all do.

[00:17:16] Dr. Noah St John: But what happens is because of this head trash that I’m talking about, and I mean, let’s face it, I’ve basically written 20 books on this one subject, how to Take Out Your Head Trash , you know? And I mean, in fact, you can I’ll just show you one, one. I won’t show you all my books, but here’s another one that you can get for free.

[00:17:30] Dr. Noah St John: It’s called Get Rid of Your Head Trash About. You know, everybody can get this book for free. It’s send me a book, noah.com. Very easy to remember. Send me a book, noah.com and I’ll send you a book. The book is free. We just ask you to cover the shipping, but the point is that the head trash is in fact, the thing that’s keeping so many people stuck.

[00:17:47] Dr. Noah St John: But what’s happening out there is that people are just focused on the symptom. rather than the actual root cause, right? So it’s like kind of going to the dentist, right? Imagine if you have a toothache, right? And you’re like, oh man, my tooth [00:18:00] really hurts. So what do you do? You go to the dentist, right?

[00:18:01] Dr. Noah St John: And you’re like, can you check this out? Man, this really hurts. And he is like, yep, you got a cavity. He’s like, and you’re like, okay. And he says, all right, well here’s some painkillers. You know, just take some pain pills and that’ll be, make you feel better. You know, like, well wait a minute. That, no, that’s, wait a minute.

[00:18:15] Dr. Noah St John: That all you’re doing is masking the symptom, right? The symptom is called. Right. And, but we, all of us have pain in different areas, but pain is always a symptom. Pain is always up here, right? So if you’re like, well, the pain is, you know, I’m lonely. The pain is, I’m overweight. The pain is, I’m not making the money I wanna be making.

[00:18:33] Dr. Noah St John: Right? So we have pain in these areas of life, whether it’s health or wealth or relationships or whatever it might be, right? That’s, but that’s only a. Pain is a symptom. The point is we have to look at the root cause at what’s actually causing the pain. Right? Even though might not be fun to get a root canal , you know, at the moment it’s probably better than just taking a pill because otherwise, you know, you might lose not just one tooth, but they’re whole bunch of teeth.

[00:18:58] Scott DeLuzio: That’s a good example is a good [00:19:00] example and. Just masking the symptoms. Like you said, just taking the pain medication to solve the toothache is not solving the root cause No. Of the problem. Right. And a lot of times, yeah, we have problems in our lives and we are addressing the symptoms, but we’re not addressing That’s right.

[00:19:21] Scott DeLuzio: The root cause. Right. And that. Is just as helpful as taking the pain medication, which, you know, maybe temporarily that might be something you need to do until that root cause is addressed. Right. Because, you know, maybe you can’t, maybe you can’t get an appointment at the dentist for, you know, it’s over the weekend.

[00:19:38] Scott DeLuzio: They’re not in the office. You can’t, yeah. You’re gonna need to take the pain medication until that root cause can be addressed.

[00:19:43] Dr. Noah St John: But again, let’s get it fixed as quickly as possible. Is the

[00:19:45] Scott DeLuzio: message, that’s the point. , you want to, you wanna be in there as soon as possible to get That’s right.

[00:19:50] Scott DeLuzio: That address, so that way you don’t have to be on pain medication for the rest of your life or whatever the cure is for the symptom of the thing that, that you’re,

[00:19:58] Dr. Noah St John: you’re dealing with. Well, this is [00:20:00] actually why, this is why the personal growth industry is primarily focused on symptom.

[00:20:05] Dr. Noah St John: right? They’re focused on symptoms, meaning like, Hey, if you’re not reaching your goals, then you need to get motivated. Come on, set your goals and think positive and you can do it. And that’s going back to the hustle and grind. You know, set, you know, work, and you know, hustle and grind.

[00:20:17] Dr. Noah St John: And you’re like that’s all symptoms. It’s all up here. The reason that my clients make so much money so quickly or lose weight so quickly or find love so quickly is because we get to that root cause. That’s why we get that hockey stick growth, as we like to call it. You know, they’re going along like this.

[00:20:33] Dr. Noah St John: And then, woo hockey. I’ll give you a quick example of that. I had one client who, in fact, I asked them this question, I said, how much do you think your head trash is costing you this. His name’s Charles my client. I said, Charles, how much do you think your head trash is gonna cost you this year? In other words, if you don’t fix this problem, how much do you think you’re gonna lose this year?

[00:20:51] Dr. Noah St John: And he said, A million dollars. He literally, without batting, I said, I’m gonna lose a million dollars if I don’t take out my head trash. I said, okay. I tell you what, cuz he actually read one of my books and he literally just [00:21:00] found me on my website. He contacted me right away. He read one of my books and he said, Noah, you know, I want you to coach me.

[00:21:05] Dr. Noah St John: I need you. I need your help on this. So that’s why I asked him, how much does it cost you? He said, A million. . I said, I’ll tell you what, you give me just 10% of that million dollars and I will get you that million dollars this year. I’ll find you that million dollars. So I said, if you give me $1 and I give you $10 back, is that a good deal?

[00:21:21] Dr. Noah St John: He goes, yeah, that’s a great deal. I said, okay. So he paid me 10% of a million dollars. That’s a hundred thousand dollars. He paid me a hundred K to coach him. Well, in one year we’ve been coaching now for actually about 10 months. We’ve already added over 1.5 million to his business. So you’re talking about hockey.

[00:21:37] Dr. Noah St John: Hockey stick. Okay. And mean, if you go to our website, you’ll see lots and lots of examples of hockey. I mean, people going from $60,000 in debt to a six figure income in less than a year, from 5,000 a month to 75,000 a month, from 4 million a year to 20 million a year. I mean, just. So many stories like this, do you think I could have done that?

[00:21:57] Dr. Noah St John: If I just would’ve said, come on, work harder, set your goals, think [00:22:00] positive, you can do it. It’s like, oh my god, really? You know, , none of that is wrong, but it also doesn’t really help. So that’s why we get to the, and that’s what hockey

[00:22:09] Scott DeLuzio: stick. Yeah. And a lot of times when you use that mindset of just work harder, you’re doing the thing that isn’t creating the growth.

[00:22:18] Scott DeLuzio: Exactly. You’re just seeing more of that. And that’s. That’s right. And doesn’t matter what the goal is, it could be growing your business. It could be quitting smoking, it could be losing weight, it could be finding another job, whatever it is. If you’re just doing the same thing that you’ve always done and you’re just doing it harder, like it doesn’t necessarily make it better, right?

[00:22:42] Scott DeLuzio: No. No it doesn’t. No it’s like, you know, my. Car is making a clunking noise. Well, lemme just press the gas a little harder, and see if that clunking noise will go away. Like maybe the sound of the engine will just drown it out

[00:22:55] Dr. Noah St John: or turn the radio off. That’s even better. Just turn the radio off now.

[00:22:58] Scott DeLuzio: Now I can’t hear it. There you [00:23:00] go. That’s good. Yeah, exactly. It doesn’t mean that the problem’s gone away, it’s just. It’s still there. It just you That’s right. You aren’t noticing it. That’s right. And it’s just not the right way of doing things. So yeah it’s really just, you know, changing that mindset, changing your attitude about different things.

[00:23:14] Scott DeLuzio: And you’ve talked about. Willpower too, being one of the worst ways to change a habit. Why? Why is it one of the worst ways to change habits?

[00:23:23] Dr. Noah St John: Willpower is a very weak muscle. Now, it’s not that it’s wrong or it’s bad, it’s just a very weak muscle, and numerous scientific studies have shown this.

[00:23:31] Dr. Noah St John: So here’s what willpower is like. So imagine you’re in your kitchen right now and somebody comes in with a freshly. Plate of chocolate chip cookies. Right? The chocolate chip cookies, they just came out of the oven. Right. You see the steam rising, right? You smell the smell and you’re like, your mouth starts to water.

[00:23:45] Dr. Noah St John: You’re like, oh my God, does that look good? Right? And then they say to you, okay, now listen, I’m gonna put these cookies here and I have to leave. So don’t eat any cookies. Do not eat a cookie. Whenever you don’t eat one of these cookies. Cuz I have to go. So I’m gonna leave this here and don’t eat a cookie.

[00:23:59] Dr. Noah St John: Now they [00:24:00] leave. What are you gonna do? You’re gonna eat like 12 cookies, right? I mean, you’re gonna, right, right, right. I. That’s what willpower’s like, right? Because willpower’s basically you saying to yourself, Hey, don’t do this thing that I really wanna do. And we humans do not like to deny ourselves, if anything, right.

[00:24:12] Dr. Noah St John: Especially nowadays. And so that’s why willpower, even though it’s not wrong or it’s not bad, it’s just, it’s a weak muscle. And so the point is what, rather than that, you know, one of the things that I teach my clients to do is work with what a habit actually is. See, we weren’t trained this, we weren’t taught what is a habit?

[00:24:28] Dr. Noah St John: Well, believe it or not, a habit is just five stages or five element. The cue routine, the reward, the craving and belief. Now, very quickly, what that means is you have the cue, which is the trigger that happens in your life, right? Then you have the routine. That’s what you do when that trigger is cued, then you have the reward.

[00:24:46] Dr. Noah St John: That happens in the brain, then you have a craving that happens in the brain. So that’s why you keep doing this habit. And then the final stage that happens is a belief about your ability or about the habit itself. So let’s take another example of [00:25:00] procrastination, right? That’s the number one habit that people say they wanna break, Noah,

[00:25:03] Dr. Noah St John: You know, I really wanna do all this. I’ve got my goals. I write ’em down all the time. I focus on ’em, but I just keep procrastinating, you know, and I can’t get anything done. There’s so many distractions out there. I can’t focus. I’m like, no kidding, right? And yes, we live in a world of infinite distractions, right at our fingertips, right?

[00:25:18] Dr. Noah St John: Every, at every second, you know, we have these machines of infinite distraction. Call our smart. And, you know, and of course the social media platforms for example, you know, they’re, they have engineers and people there that are working the algorithm to keep you addicted to that platform. So they make more money cuz so they can show you more advertising.

[00:25:40] Dr. Noah St John: That is their entire job, that is their entire existence is to keep you addicted. So they show you more ads so they make more money. That is. They’re not designed to, you know, help you in any way, right? And so just knowing that sometimes can help people to, you know, break that addiction to their smartphone or to their screens, for example.

[00:25:58] Dr. Noah St John: Anyway, so the point is, [00:26:00] think about procrastination. That’s the habit, right? Again, I don’t think there’s too many people that would argue that procrastination is a productive habit, right? In other words, something like I talked about earlier, that’s bringing you towards your goal, right? For most people.

[00:26:10] Dr. Noah St John: And it’s an unproductive habit. You know, boy, I really should do this, but you know what? I think I’ll go watch Netflix, or I think I’ll just scroll social media. Hello. You just wasted all that time. And like we talked about earlier, time is the most valuable resource because it can’t be replaced. All of Bill Gates billions can’t buy one minute of yesterday.

[00:26:27] Dr. Noah St John: All right, so if you look at that habit, You know, the, the trigger is you think about doing something you should do. You know, that it would actually help you. That’s what the irony of procrastination is. It’s not just not doing something. It’s not doing something that would actually help you, that would benefit you.

[00:26:42] Dr. Noah St John: Then the routine is you do something else, , right? You think about the thing and then you do something else, right? But then what happens is you have the reward in the brain that says, aha, I’m safe, right? And your brain is designed to keep you not dead. That is your brain’s main job. Keep you not. So the brain, and one great way to keep [00:27:00] you not dead is to make sure you don’t do anything scary, right?

[00:27:03] Dr. Noah St John: Because in, in ancient times, right, if you did something, if you felt that fear, it could be a sabertooth tiger in the bushes, right? Coming out to eat you. Well, there’s not too many sabertooth tigers running around nowadays, but we still have those same fears in our brain, right? The brain hasn’t, you know, I’m talking about the ancient brain.

[00:27:17] Dr. Noah St John: I’m pointing to my. Head back here. You know, it’s the ancient limbic brain, not the frontal cortex, you know, the communication part of the brain and so forth. Anyway, so that’s the reward. It’s like, oh, I’m safe. I didn’t die. Great job. Me, you know, and then the craving is for safety, right? And that’s why people don’t face their fears so many times.

[00:27:35] Dr. Noah St John: And then the belief becomes, I can’t do it. Oh, wow. What did I just talk about? Head trash. I wonder where head trash comes from. Do you see how this all works together? You see why willpower won’t do really anything here in this situation. It doesn’t do anything. It’s like, come on, do it. And you’re like, eh.

[00:27:51] Dr. Noah St John: And then you’re like, I forget it. You know? It’s just, it’s tiring, it’s exhausting and it doesn’t work very well. So what I teach my clients to do is very simple number. Understand what the [00:28:00] cue is that triggers this habit. Number two, we just change the routine. All we do is swap out a new routine, right?

[00:28:05] Dr. Noah St John: And you say, okay, well if I go, if I have this thing and I go watch Netflix, how about just do one simple thing? Just if you, let’s say it’s make a phone call. Maybe it’s write an article. Maybe it’s right part of your book. Maybe it’s write an outline or create something. If you want to create an online course or your business, maybe it’s to call your mentor, you know, or something like that.

[00:28:25] Dr. Noah St John: You know, just a different thing than that you’ve been doing. . That doesn’t really involve willpower. It’s just switching and then using my A formations method, that’s how we can start to change the belief rather than saying, I can’t do it. You say, why can’t I do it? Why did I do it? Why am I able to do the things that I set my mind to?

[00:28:43] Dr. Noah St John: Now, just switching those things, you see how simple that is. And it can be very quick. This is one example and one reason, frankly, why we’re able to get this hockey stick growth for our clients because you’re like, man, this doesn’t have to be so hard. It doesn’t. In fact, it’s probably easier than what you’re doing right now.

[00:28:57] Dr. Noah St John: And that’s what’s so nice about

[00:28:59] Scott DeLuzio: it. [00:29:00] And when you, I, I’m guilty of this too, procrastinating. I found myself sit, sitting here sitting right here in this spot, , looking at this screen that I’m looking at right now. Yeah. Knowing that there is something I need to be doing. But I put it off I choose to do something else and I ended up wasting time, wasting, you know, a half hour, an hour, whatever it is, doing something else. Yeah. When I could have been doing that other thing that brought me closer to whatever the goal was that I was trying to get towards. And. Looking back at it, obviously that was not helpful in any way, shape or form.

[00:29:36] Scott DeLuzio: It wasn’t helping me achieve any of those goals that I had. , I wa and the thing is, when you work towards achieving a goal, Once you reach that goal, now you’re able to move on to that next goal and do that next thing, which is like the hockey stick growth that you’re talking about with anything, whether it’s weight loss or how fast you quit smoking or whatever.

[00:29:58] Scott DeLuzio: If you are working towards that goal you’re [00:30:00] going to see that growth or that decrease in other cases, you know, if it’s a loss kind of thing, like a weight loss kind of thing. Right. You know, you’re gonna see that much quicker if you continue to work towards it. And procrastination. I know for me in my life it had been a pretty significant issue and you know, you’re just working towards.

[00:30:20] Scott DeLuzio: A goal helps you overcome that thing. Sometimes that, that thing is, it’s scary because you’re unsure of yourself. That’s you’re doubting yourself like, oh, I don’t know if I can actually do this, so I’ll do something else instead. ,

[00:30:33] Dr. Noah St John: and because it’s safe, like I was just talking about, it’s safe.

[00:30:36] Dr. Noah St John: Yeah. You don’t die. See, I mean, that’s what your brain lawyer says to yourself. It’s you talking to you and you’re like, see, I didn’t die. You’re welcome. But meanwhile, your other brain’s going hello? I’d like to make money. You know? Yeah. And your brain’s like, I don’t care. We’re not dead.

[00:30:51] Scott DeLuzio: Shut up.

[00:30:51] Scott DeLuzio: We’re not dead. We can worry about money tomorrow.

[00:30:53] Dr. Noah St John: Right. That’s your problem. That’s not my problem. . Yeah, exactly. It’s funny, we have all these different brains in there with different [00:31:00] agendas, so it’s basically a matter of who wins. But one of the things I just wanted say quickly is that, you know, one of the things that I work with my clients on.

[00:31:06] Dr. Noah St John: Is for is ha we call these the three pillars of transformation. And that is having the right plan, the right tools, and the right support, right, the right tool, or excuse me, the right plan, which is what to do, right? So like, you know, in my books and my coaching and my courses I give you that. I give you the right plan and I show you what to do.

[00:31:22] Dr. Noah St John: I show you what to do and how to do it mean. I show you different tools and things like that. And then I, of course I give you the right support, you know, and a lot of times, a lot, you know, as a coach, as a mentor, one of my biggest jobs is believing in people before they believe in the. Because a lot of people have gone through trauma or loss.

[00:31:39] Dr. Noah St John: I mean, everybody has, right? I mean, you know, you get to a certain age in life, it’s pretty hard to not have loss or trauma or pain or whatever. So, you know, people have been beat up or you know, just traumatized whatever by life, by things. And so, you know, get getting. That support is so, so crucial.

[00:31:55] Dr. Noah St John: And then the fourth element of transformation is taking the right action. [00:32:00] See, it’s like, you know, if you hired me because I was the best personal trainer, and you say, Hey, no, I really wanna get in shape, I want to have six pack ads. So, you know, I hear you’re the best trainer around. So, you know, you know, here’s the money and can you train me?

[00:32:10] Dr. Noah St John: I said, sure. And then you say, Hey, no, what, by the way, can you do my sit-ups for me so I can get six pack? I’d be like well that would be great, wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it be nice to hire somebody to do our setups if we get these six packs? That would be awesome. Right? I haven’t figured that one out yet.

[00:32:25] Dr. Noah St John: but I, I’d be a billionaire if I could do that one. Yeah. Alright. I’ll do your setups and you get six pack out, you know. But what’s so funny is that’s what a lot of marketing is, right? They say things like that, it’s a magic pill. It’s a silver bullet. And I was like, no, sorry. Those don’t exist. Gosh darn it.

[00:32:38] Dr. Noah St John: So, you know, but having the right plan, the right tools and the right. To me is really the crucial elements of that transformation. And then we just say, listen, if you just take a few actions every day, it’s probably not, probably, it is going to, it’s definitely gonna give you more productive results than what you’re doing right now.

[00:32:57] Scott DeLuzio: And at the end of the day, it’ll develop a little bit [00:33:00] more self-confidence. You know, that thing that you’re doing or that you’re procrastinating right from is because you. Unsure of yourself. You’re That’s right. Unsure of your abilities and whatnot. That’s right. Once, when you do that thing and you accomplish the goal, you’ll be a little more confident in Absolutely.

[00:33:16] Scott DeLuzio: Whatever it is that you’re trying to do. And you’ll be more likely to do it again the next time. And That’s right. And push yourself outside your comfort zone even more and accomplish even bigger and better things. That’s right. Just by making some small little changes. And it doesn’t have to.

[00:33:34] Scott DeLuzio: Wholesale changes all today, day one. No. No, because I think that’s completely unsustainable if you do that. Unless like something just like triggered in your brain and you’re just like, you know what? All junk food is gone forever, and I’m never gonna touch another piece of pie or cake or cookies or anything like that.

[00:33:52] Scott DeLuzio: I I’ll never eat it again. Okay. Well, you know, God bless you. But you know, I think that’s probably few and far between, especially after, you know, [00:34:00] recent holidays that we just got through and stuff. Like, there’s gonna be food, there’s gonna be stuff like the other things are gonna come up, right.

[00:34:06] Scott DeLuzio: . You know, make some small changes. You know, every night you have you have, you know, a couple cookies before bed. Well maybe don’t do that before bed. Right. You know, and replace that with, I don’t know, an apple or something. You know, you know, something that’s healthier and that will move you towards that goal.

[00:34:22] Scott DeLuzio: If, you know, if your goal is weight loss or if your goal is to get more involved in you know, networking group in your industry or something like that. Well, instead of deciding to stay home and watch Netflix force yourself to go out on that, you know, that night when that group is meeting and go interact with those people and start making connections and.

[00:34:45] Scott DeLuzio: That’s just one step closer. And yeah, maybe that’s just a one time deal and you’re gonna have to do that again and again. But once when you start to know those people, it’s gonna be a whole lot easier to get out and get in involved in that group. Right.

[00:34:58] Dr. Noah St John: Absolutely. That’s [00:35:00] a great

[00:35:00] Scott DeLuzio: example. Yeah, so I mean, there’s just so many different things that we are.

[00:35:05] Scott DeLuzio: Stuck with we, we have this head trash. We need to figure out how to get unstuck, break some of these bad habits. Again, you mentioned your books, your your website and all the resources that are available that you have. I will have links to all those in the show notes. So that anyone who is listening wants to check out the books wants to find out more about your coaching or anything else that, that you have to offer.

[00:35:32] Scott DeLuzio: They can find those links in the show notes. Is there anything else that you’d like to add for the listeners before we, we wrap up here?

[00:35:38] Dr. Noah St John: Yes, I do have one other resource I’d like to mention. It’s called Breakthrough with noah.com. And that is a video that I just released that really shows how I help my clients to, you know, break through their income ceiling breakthrough, you know, any head trash and get rid of that and really get that hockey stick growth.

[00:35:55] Dr. Noah St John: So that’s breakthrough with noah.com. Very easy to remember. And there’s a video training [00:36:00] there. And I really encourage you to go watch that. It’s a short video that really goes over my whole system in a very short and entertaining way. So, breakthrough with noah.com is a resource I’d love for everyone to check it out.

[00:36:13] Scott DeLuzio: Excellent. Well, thank you Noah, for joining me and taking the time to share the affirmations and how we can break these habits that we’ve developed. Throughout our careers, throughout our lives, all these things that take place in our lives. How we can help to improve our situations and get rid of some of these habits.

[00:36:31] Scott DeLuzio: So, thank you. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you. And I appreciate you taking the time to come on. My pleasure.

[00:36:36] Scott DeLuzio: Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to support the show, please check out Scott’s book, Surviving Son on Amazon. All of the sales from that book go directly back into this podcast and work to help veterans in need. You can also follow the Drive On Podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.[00:37:00]